I have prayed to speak in tongues, but I haven't spoken in tongues.
What's hindering me?
Hi.
Welcome to Little Lessons.
This is going to be the third little lesson, which we're discussing the subject of speaking
in tongues.
Need to say, once again, that if you're offended by this, please, please, please don't be offended
because, I can speak for myself, my motivation is a love for you.
Once you have experienced what I'm promoting here, what we would call the baptism in the
Holy Spirit and then the accompanying evidence of speaking in tongues, you want others to
experience it as well.
I'll say it again.
We're not saying that people who speak in tongues are more spiritual or more devoted.
Oh my goodness, no, no, no.
There are plenty of wonderful, wonderful Christians who are very devoted to Jesus Christ who have
never spoken in tongues.
We're not making that claim at all, but I can't imagine any Christian not wanting everything
that God might have for them.
On our previous podcast, I tried to dispel one fallacy that, based upon 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse number 20, Paul's rhetorical question, "Do all speak in tongues?"
Tried to look at that in light of the context in light of the rest of the Bible.
Now, lots of folks have prayed to receive the whatever you want to call it, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit or, you know, they want to be able to pray in other tongues, but they
haven't.
It hasn't happened to them yet.
I'm a person who has prayed for, I'm sure, hundreds of people over the years.
I've been in vocational ministry almost 40 years.
I've ministered in something like 80 countries.
I have a little experience in this.
I've probably prayed for I'm sure it's in the thousands of people to be baptized in
the Holy Spirit and expecting them to speak in tongues.
About 99% of them spoke in tongues, but not all received instantaneously.
Sometimes they needed a little bit of coaching, a little bit of help in understanding what
to expect because they were, for some reason, being hindered.
That's what this little lesson is all about.
What's the one thing that I've seen that hinders people more than anything else?
I would say that it's a lack of understanding about what speaking in tongues really entails.
A lot of folks have the mistaken idea that if God wants them to speak in tongues, he's
going to grab their mouth and grab their tongue and their lips and so forth and all of a sudden,
uncontrollably, they're going to be like a robot speaking in other tongues.
That is not the case.
That is actually not Biblical at all.
People who speak in tongues realize that their freewill, their decider decides when to speak
in tongues and when to stop.
They are not able to come up with the utterance themselves.
That's the Holy Spirit's job, but they have to cooperate.
They have to, you know, utilize their vocal cords, their mouth, and their lips.
The first time you do it, it is a little bit strange because it's never happened to you
before.
Once you've done it one time, then it becomes just as easy as speaking in your known language.
Now, right now, I'm talking to you.
I'm going to stop talking to you.
Here I go.
Well, you see, I have control, don't I?
I can start and stop when I want to.
It's identical when it comes to speaking in tongues.
You may have prayed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
You may have believed that you're baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Well, I believe that God has answered your prayer, but if you never yield your mouth,
if you never take a step of faith and begin to actual speak and give the Holy Spirit a
chance to give you the utterance, then you'll never speak in tongues.
I know that for an absolute fact because right today, I could make a decision, "I'm never
going to speak in tongues ever again even though I do it every day in my prayer life."
I could make a decision right now, "I'm never going to do it ever again."
Guess what.
If I really meant that, I would never speak in tongues again because I decide.
This is totally scriptural.
Paul, in talking to the Corinthians, correcting them about their misuse of speaking in tongues,
he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse number 14, "For if I pray in a tongue, my
spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful."
What is the outcome then?
"I," Paul, "will pray with the spirit."
That is, I'll pray in other tongues.
"I will pray with my mind also."
That is I'll pray in Hebrew or Greek, whatever language.
"I will sing with the Spirit," sing in other tongues, "and I will sing with the mind also."
There you have it from the authority of the apostle Paul that speaking in tongues is something
in which we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
Again, it's weird the first time you do it.
Now, some charismatic and Pentecostal people, when they pray for you to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit, they'll tell you to say something.
They'll say, "Say, 'Shundai.'"
I don't like that and I don't do that because I don't think that's right, but I get the
gist of what they're doing.
They're trying to get you to realize you must do something.
If you just sit there with your mouth closed, waiting for the Holy Spirit to make you speak
in tongues, you'll be sitting there til kingdom come because it's not going to happen unless
you cooperate.
It is a little bit odd, again, the first time.
Once it happens the first time, you can do it every time after that.
My advice to you is to have faith.
If you are to the point where you're convinced, "Yeah, this is something that God does want
for me because I read instances in the book of Acts.
I read where Jesus promised, 'If you, being the evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him?'"
There's a great promise there for anybody, even people that speak in tongues, if you
want more of the Holy Spirit.
If you're convinced that this is something that God wants for you, then when you do pray,
then you have to open your mouth and you got to start talking and just speak whatever wants
to come out.
Do not be speaking in the language that you learn.
The cool thing is is that your spirit praying but your mind is unfruitful.
Here's a little test that I tested on myself and I've told many people this.
They've confirmed its truthfulness.
You can not carry on a conversation with a person while you're reading a book or something
at the same time.
You got to put the book down and say, "Okay.
I'm going to focus on what you're saying and respond to you," or you got to block them
out and read the book.
You can't, for example, read a book at the same time and recite multiplication tables
because it requires your mind to do both those things.
Here's what you'll find out.
Once you've spoken in tongues, you'll find you can read a book or read the Bible, at
the same time as you're reading and understanding comprehending with your mind, you'll find
you can speak in tongues fluently, absolutely fluently.
Why?
Because it's not coming out of your mind.
It's coming out of your spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the one who gives you the utterance.
On the day of Pentecost, it wasn't the Holy Spirit who spoke in tongues.
It says, "They spoke with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."
This is something that you have to do.
I think, in my experience of 40 years of this, that's been the greatest stumbling block that
holds people back.
I'm telling you because I love you.
Thanks for joining me.
Til next time, God bless.